Elite Generations
by Lisandra Yajuujo
Summary: In the tradition of DBZ, only a little more character driven. Okay, a lot more. Be prepared, because the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual limits of the Z fighters will be severely tested...
1. Black

Setting: A few hours before the destruction of Vegita-Sei.  
Rating: PG-13 for language and violence.  
Notes: ** are for thought. And I got the title from a Sarah McLachlan song. "As the walls are closing in, and the colors fade to black..." In any case, this little mini-snippet of a story sets up the next few parts, so consider this a prologue of sorts. Okay, ready? And we're off...!  
  
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"What if we get caught?" Lee whispered, looking behind her cautiously. Ree, her twin sister, snuck her way past the guards, past the throne room, and to the training hall, with Lee following close behind.  
  
"Then we get caught," Ree replied simply. "You wanted to see him, so we'll see him. Me 'cause I'm gonna be betrothed to him, you 'cause god knows why." Finally, they stopped at the large doors of the training hall. Ree pulled them open slightly and took a peek. "C'mon," Ree beckoned, pulling Lee to the doors.  
  
Lee put an eye to the small crack and peered through, watching the group of children, guards, and all in all very powerful people sparring each other. Just about in the center of the room was the young prince Vegeta, sparring with an older man who was getting badly beaten. Finally, after a painful punch to the gut, the man forfeited.  
  
Young Vegeta smirked evilly, looking down at the crouching man. "There IS no forfeiting -- it's win or die, and I just won."  
  
The man looked up and spat. "You're just a kid, dammit," he said, trying to regain some dignity, "I can forfeit if I want to."  
  
Vegeta laughed. And gave the man a kick that broke his neck. The body fell limply on the floor with a loud thud. "I am the prince of this planet... KID." With a wave of his hand, he dismissed himself from the room, and two guards dragged the dead body away.  
  
"Damn..." Lee whispered, jaw dropping in awe and a bit of jealousy.  
  
"Serves the KID right," the young prince muttered, watching the guards pick up the dead body of the man... and then, hearing a shuffling at the door, his gaze swept to a crack in the door.  
  
And he saw her face.  
  
Lee gasped and quickly closed the doors.  
  
"What is it?" Ree asked in concern.  
  
*-he saw me he saw me oh fuck what am I gonna do now-* Lee took a breath and calmed herself enough to speak. "HE SAW ME!" she yelled, loud enough for everyone in the training hall to hear.  
  
"SHIT!" Ree yelled just as loud. "COME ON!!" She quickly grabbed Lee and zoomed down the hallway, this time not caring if the guards saw or not.  
  
Lee closed her eyes in thought. To have the attention of the prince was definitely NOT a good thing -- especially if you were two second class females spying on him while he was training. It wouldn't even matter if their father was in negotiations with the King to get his son and Ree betrothed. That would probably be canceled... *Whoa, hold up...* Lee opened her eyes and grinned. *Maybe this ain't so bad after all.*  
  
The guards confronting the twins at the end of the hall made Ree screech to a halt. "SHIT!" The two stopped, hovering there as they faced off with the guards. Lee turned to go back the way they'd come...  
  
And there he was.  
  
Arms folded, tiny frown on his face... and twenty royal guards behind him.  
  
Lee and the young prince caught each other's gaze. Her brows furrowed; so did his. Then he smirked. Just the tiniest bit of a smirk. Lee blinked; her mouth opened to say something, but nothing came out. A deep blush crept its way up her cheeks, and she closed her mouth, staying silent. He made a small 'hmph' sound. And then...  
  
"Attack," he murmured to the guards behind him.  
  
Lee and Ree stood back to back as the guards closed in on both sides, battle auras flaming around them.  
  
*What now, sis? Fight or flight?*  
  
Lee tried to think of something, anything, but nothing was in her head except for his face, his smirk, the sound of his voice, that power he held -- wait, did he realize? Did he know who she was? More importantly, perhaps most... did he know EXACTLY who she was? Specifically, did he know she was the one who left the notes around the palace for him to find, telling of how powerful she was, daring him to fight her because she knew she'd win...  
  
*LEE!*  
  
"Let's get out of here," Lee growled, looking at the guards in front of her -- and suddenly grinning. Realizing how perfect the situation was for her. Here was the chance to show off the power she knew she had, and there he was to see it. Even if he never got those stupid notes, he'd know her power now. And that was all he'd need to know. Bringing her hands up and away, she reared back, gathering as much energy she could muster and then some. She felt a sudden burn in her hands and chuckled, knowing how surprised Ree would be. Concentrating, feeling the energy building, building...  
  
And then throwing her hands forward and releasing, firing a tremendously huge ki blast, twice the size of the largest man in the midst of the guards, the energy twisting like a pillar of fire with the speed not seen by many, rocking the very floors of the palace and scorching the walls.  
  
Needless to say, a few charred skeletons were the only things in the sisters' way now.  
  
Lee stared for a moment, not gloating, but in complete shock. She did this. She hardly knew there was that kind of power in existence, and SHE did it. Not Ree. LEE. Kicking into high gear, Lee grabbed Ree by the hand and flew off, making for the royal pods. A power like what she'd just demonstrated, used against palace guards, was high treason, punishable not by death, but by something much worse.  
  
Young Vegeta ran after the two, stopping at the remains of the guards she'd killed. He looked down. Correction: charred and smoldering remains of the guards she'd killed. He looked up, narrowing his eyes at the two sisters, but kept his attention on Lee. And the powerful ki he sensed. He let himself grin, then turned to the guards behind him.  
  
Two seconds later, he walked back into the royal training room, leaving behind two piles of burnt remains. After all, the two would have a better chance of escaping -- and returning afterwards -- if there were no witnesses.  
  
  
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"Okay so far, sis?"  
  
A very young Lee made a face at the speakers as she checked the systems of her pod, blowing a strand of grey hair out of an eye. "Of course I'm okay. I know how these things work. I know more than YOU, anyway." She grimaced at the dust that had settled on the panels thanks to the disuse of the old pod, but she had to make do; it was all the two could get, and they were in quite a hurry at the time.  
  
"All right, all right," Ree replied, her voice nothing more than a ghostly rasp on the ancient communication device installed in the walls on each side of the pilot seat. "I was just concerned, that's all."  
  
Lee flopped down in the seat and sighed wearily, elbows on her knees, leaning her forehead on her palms. "Well, don't be," she breathed out. "I can take care of myself."  
  
"Yeah, you demonstrated that clearly before we left, didn't you?"  
  
Lee gritted her teeth, about to make a very obscene comment at her sister, when the pod suddenly rocked violently, throwing her out of the chair and sprawling her on the floor with a hard thud. Scrambling up quickly, she made it to the controls and ran a quick scan on the inner systems. "Ree, something just happened. Felt anything just now?"  
  
Silence.  
  
"Ree?" Lee pushed a button and opened the pod's main window; maybe she'd be able to search for whatever caused the shake. As the clear window was revealed, Lee took a quick look outside and gasped, watching as the pod's auto-pilot swerved the pod this way and that to avoid a sudden asteroid field that it had come across. Not even come across -- somehow, the pod wound up almost in the middle of it. But how? They were too close to Vegita-Sei for the sensors to miss such an abnormal spatial anomaly before they took off. *Ree! Dammit, talk to me!*  
  
The responding voice, which should have sounded more solid and clear considering the strength of the sisters' mental connection as opposed to the antique speakers, was more of a feathery whisper, and it frightened Lee more than the situation itself. *Oh Kami, tell me that wasn't just my imagination, tell me that wasn't what I think...*  
  
*Ree! What the hell is happening?!*  
  
*Oh kami, no... it's... it's all gone...*  
  
*WHAT?!*  
  
*... Vegita-Sei. It's... gone.*  
  
Silence on Lee's end.  
  
*Kami help us. We're the last ones.*  
  
*No. We can't be.*  
  
*The planet blew the fuck up. You tell me someone can survive that.*  
  
*No... no no no no... kami no please...*  
  
*Goodbye, Otosan. I will always love you dearly.*  
  
Another silence.  
  
*What is it, Lee?*  
  
*He... he has to be alive...*  
  
*Otosan?*  
  
*The... prince.*  
  
*... oh jeez... Lee, don't tell me you... actually...*  
  
*Ree, please... just... leave me alone,* she moaned pathetically.  
  
  
  
The two lonely pods continued to speed away from the remains of Vegita-Sei, passing just outside of the radar on Frieza's ship.  
  
  
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There, done. I feel accomplished now. Anybody wanna see what Lee and Ree actually look like, go look up saiyajin_lee in Yahoo! photos. I've got a buncha my stuff there. 


	2. Silver Nothing

  
Setting: Approximately a few years after the end of DBZ.

Rating: PG-13 for language and violence.

Notes: ** are for thought. And I got the title from my own song, "Silver Goodbye." Maybe I'll stick the lyrics somewhere in the story. You should basically know Lee and Ree from that prologue thing, but I'll explain a bit more. The dimensional rift they headed towards pushed Lee into the Core, HQ of the Wandering Souls, an interdimensional policing agency. She works for them, but all Ree knows is that Lee tends to disappear a lot, leaving Ree to wander around the galaxy in search for her. Anyways... oh, and the Kemanians are basically purple female Namekians. There are a few big differences, but that'll be revealed later. Okay, enough blab.

The take-off was a standard procedure everyone in the WS knew well: the official send-off and salute in the docking bay, the boarding of the pod, the engine ignition while present members of the group watched from the one huge window in the Core looking out to the closed-in bay. The bay was more like a parking space for the pod, which faced a wall programmed to channel dimensional holes. The whole of the Core was designed to save time, space, and energy, like the Wandering Souls itself – but unlike their "bible" of sorts, "The Wandering Souls Official Handbook for Technical, Emotional, and Moral Assistance." Or, as the old members called it, "the Big Book." Every WS member knew the procedures and protocol by heart, or else they'd be forced to carry the forty-thousand page manual with them on every mission. The one procedure all present at the Core had to take part of was the take-off of a fellow member on a mission, since who knew if it would be their last.

So it was that it only took less than a moment of thought and a quick glance at the Core window to realize that the Core was completely empty and devoid of other WS members, save Zenith and Satan. She wondered absently just how many experienced members were out on missions that Zenith had to look for Lee specifically. In any case, Lee felt a tingle of apprehension.

Something wasn't quite right.

"On my mark." Zenith's voice was little more than a hiss in the ancient speakers placed throughout the pod, two of which hanging from the ceiling and tilting down towards the pilot seat, which Lee had buckled herself into moments before.

Lee double-checked the instruments on the control panel, waving her palms over the motion-sensitive panels and glancing at the technical readouts. Satisfied that the pod was in working order -- which was surprising considering its age -- she hovered her right hand over a spot on the panel shaped like a hand. "Ready when you are, Zee."

"On three. Three, two, one… mark."

Lee pressed her hand on the panel, and the engines roared to life, shaking the interior of the pod and moving anything not bolted down.

"Luck to you, Lee-dee-dee!" Satan jolted Lee back into reality with a voice that could probably break the pod speakers if she tried hard enough, if only with her sheer jumpiness and partial annoyance. "May your skies be clear, your Vodka strong, and your aim deadly!"

Lee smirked; everyone had a tailor-made send-off, and it was obvious Satan helped create this one. "Since when was my aim NOT deadly?" she murmured with a chuckle, sitting back in the pilot chair and staring at the ceiling, as the engines took the pod up and then forward, through the starry dimensional hole. "See you on the other side, kid. And don't give her too much sugar, Zenith."

Was it Lee's imagination, or could she actually HEAR Zenith raise an eyebrow? "Luck to you, Lee of Saiyajin... and since when do I have sugar anywhere near Satania?"

The speakers went silent as the pod shot out into its programmed dimension.

*Space. The final frontier.*

All at once, the pod started to shake. The lights went dim for a moment, and the red warning lights came blinking on, as everything not bolted down banged against the rounded walls of the pod. Lee unbuckled herself from the hard steel chair and broke away just a moment before it crashed on the ceiling and made a very dangerous looking dent in the metal. She stared at the chunk of twisted metal where her head would've been.

*Space... the final graveyard?*

Lee sighed, hovering in mid-air, waiting for the pod's systems to correct the gravity...

_"Okay so far, sis?"_

_ _

_A very young Lee made a face at the speakers as she checked the systems of her pod, blowing a strand of gray hair out of an eye. "Of course I'm okay. I know how these things work. I know more than YOU, anyway." She grimaced at the dust that had settled on the panels thanks to the disuse of the old pod, but she had to make do; it was all the two could get, and they were in quite a hurry at the time._

_ _

_"All right, all right," Ree replied, her voice nothing more than a ghostly rasp on the ancient communication device installed in the walls on each side of the pilot seat. "I was just concerned, that's all."_

_ _

_Lee flopped down in the seat and sighed wearily, elbows on her knees, leaning her forehead on her palms. "Well, don't be," she breathed out. "I can take care of myself."_

_ _

_"Yeah, you demonstrated that clearly before we left, didn't you?"_

_ _

_Lee gritted her teeth, about to make a very obscene comment at her sister, when the pod suddenly rocked violently, throwing her out of the chair and sprawling her on the floor with a hard thud. Scrambling up quickly, she made it to the controls and ran a quick scan on the inner systems. "Ree, something just happened. Felt anything just now?"_

_ _

_Silence._

_ _

_"Ree?" Lee pushed a button and opened the pod's main window; maybe she'd be able to search for whatever caused the shake. As the clear window was revealed, Lee took a quick look outside and gasped, watching as the pod's auto-pilot swerved the pod this way and that to avoid a sudden asteroid field that it had come across. Not even come across -- somehow, the pod wound up almost in the middle of it. But how? They were too close to Vegita-Sei for the sensors to miss such an abnormal spatial anomaly before they took off. *Ree! Dammit, talk to me!*_

_ _

The responding voice, which should have sounded more solid and clear considering the strength of the sisters' mental connection as opposed to the antique speakers, was more of a feathery whisper, and it frightened Lee more than the situation itself. *Oh Kami, tell me that wasn't just my imagination, tell me that wasn't what I think...*

A screaming alarm startled Lee out of her remembrances and plopped her quite unceremoniously back to the present. *Oh, fuck, NOW what?*Lee thought as she scanned the pod's programming for errors. A sudden glaring phrase of words came up on-screen, giving her a scare for a moment.

-- INTERNAL SYSTEM ERROR: POD GRAVITY AT 78% NORMAL --

*And why would that be bad? What, just cause your little wires want a hundred percent from everything? Well, that's what you get when you're programmed by an almost-perfect android, ne? Perfectionist computers all around me, ugh...*

Lee floated there for a moment, wondering why it would be so bad to let the pilot of a Wandering Souls pod float in zero-gravity. It wasn't like they weren't trained for it; hell, they were supposed to handle everything from killer gravity to killer mutants. Staring up at the pilot seat, which was now firmly lodged in the ceiling, she stuck her hands in her pockets -- and felt something. Taking out one hand, she produced the micro-CD from one pocket.

Her assignment CD.

*Heh, almost forgot about that.*

A sudden, overwhelming sense of curiosity seized her, making her fingers itch at the very touch of the CD. Just what WAS her assignment, anyway? After everything that she'd found out or deduced happened at the Core while she was away, it was obvious that something very, very big was happening, and she didn't like it. Not one bit. The smell was just wrong – it was the smell of blood, the blood of a thousand good men and women, shed in one swoop, cleaned up haphazardly, leaving nothing to see but so much to smell.

The smell of death reeked on that tiny CD held with the bare touch of her fingertips.

*All right. Let's see just what the hell's going on here.*

Running (floating, really) to the back of the pod, she reached a small console hooked up to the wall next to the head of the small cot that was to be her bed for the course of the trip. *WS pods, the only way to fly.* Inserting the CD, she sat on the cot and waited patiently for a file readout to appear on the tiny screen.

Static.

"Dammit," Lee cursed out loud, banging the console repeatedly. "C'mon, show me SOMETHING..."

An image of Zenith appeared for a split second, fuzzed, and then cleared up, catching her in mid-sentence. "... what was going to happen here at the Core two months ago. I knew about the attack." It paused, then skipped almost a full minute of frames, continuing mid-sentence again. "... many deaths, but perhaps... compensate for the damage... object of your mission in general, after all... thought the attack would only hinder us for a short while, but..."

Another burst of static paused the transmission as the console's system tried to compensate for the damage.

There were many members in the Wandering Souls when Lee had worked at the Core. Almost no one knew each other; in fact, only a privileged few not in the WS knew what they actually did and how large a group they were. Most members worked in their native territory, which meant there were many operatives throughout hundreds of galaxies in an almost infinite amount of dimensions. To eliminate only five members would most likely mean traveling to five different dimensions, but that would be impossible –- by the time one member would be eliminated, four more would be on the scene to investigate, and all members would be immediately alerted. To eliminate more than one member would take an incredible amount of speed as well as a deadly accuracy unmatched by anyone anywhere.

In short, complete annihilation of the Wandering Souls was very close to impossible.

Very close, but apparently not close enough.

As if some inner mechanism whacked itself back in synch with the rest of the console, the video file cleared up, and the damage after that point was minimal. Zenith appeared again in crystal clear video, looking straight into the camera device she had recorded into. She seemed to see directly past everything and right to Lee. Maybe it was her silver eyes that only gave that impression, but it was still unsettling. Even more unsettling was her message.

"I knew that everyone save you and Satan would die, and I would perish soon afterwards. Hence, I could do nothing to stop the coming chaos. It was foretold to happen, and... well, you know how stubborn destiny is.

"There are two possibilities for our future – the future of you, Satan, all species in every dimension. One would be the annihilation of existence itself. I doubt anyone would lay down and submit to this option. The other option is quite surprising, considering the key players involved. Satan, you see, has been chosen to take my place at the Core. This is not totally accurate, however. She will indeed take my place heading the Core at the Machine's controls. You, however, have a most difficult destiny, and hard shoes to fill.

"You were always a fiery one, Lee. The wild firebird of the Souls, always flitting from one battle to the next with a ferocity unmatched by any member before or since. I watched you closely, analyzing every aspect of you. Moral, emotional, physical, mental. The more I analyzed, the more I found my calculations to be incorrect. Throwing a hypothetical at the Machine, however, found my calculations completely feasible. It told me many things. Of alternate futures, alternate lives you could have led. From schizophrenic rebel to commanding general warrioress to technical genius... to a doting wife and queen. Despite some negative connotations, most of these are very noble. And you still have the potential for them. Through the Machine, I saw in you everything I wanted for the future Wandering Souls. For Beta.

"Your ultimate mission is not the README file contained in the pod's circuitry. Your mission, and you have no choice but to accept, is to resurrect the Wandering Souls, to make it better, to lead a new generation of Wanderers in an existence where god-like power is held by those who do not deserve it and cannot use it wisely. You must be the epitome of power in the face of universal chaos. Basically, the Big Guy gave me this power, and I now hand it to your hopefully capable hands."

*Hopefully...?* Evidently, Zenith didn't give all THAT much credit to the Machine's predictions. Typical of an android created by the 'Big Guy' himself. It was nice to know that even androids could have a bit of a superiority complex.

It was also nice to know that Zenith actually had hope.

Fingers brushed her cheek softly, and she stirred. Hands soothed her aching shoulders, wiped tears gently from her eyes, and she sighed, falling into a strong, warm embrace. Arms held her tightly – why was the feeling so painfully familiar? – and she felt the strong beating of someone else's heart close to hers. Lips touched her ear as a gentle, low whisper offered her eternal comfort; no more pain, no more torture, just silence and warmth…

Lee woke with a soft sigh and a small shiver, blinking open wet eyes and staring at the ceiling.

Even her less torturous dreams found ways of haunting her.

She stretched cat-like on the tiny cot, arching her back as she let out a tiny purr. Zenith once made the very obvious observation that Lee had always seemed to exhibit characteristics of both a firebird and a cat, existing in a constant flaming fury in one moment and achieving a sense of a slinky, independent aloofness the next. Standing up and heading towards the small box loosely called a fridge, Lee let herself smile. If there was anything to like about being Saiyajin, other than the ability to get stronger after each battle, it was the ability to show traits of various animals without even knowing it. Ree was the owl-slash-fox, cooking up crafty schemes and letting Lee in on various secrets of the universe with an insight Lee never knew possible.... It must've been the Keman blood in her.

Lee took one look inside the fridge and sighed, shoulders slumping.

*Half a bottle of tequila and a lemon. Yummy.*

A sudden pang of guilt washed over her, but she shook her head, trying to physically clear it of all thought. As long as she kept her mind on the mission, she'd be fine. Hell, she might even be quick enough to finish the mission and be back on Earth before she missed any major battles. Taking the bottle and lemon, she closed the now empty fridge and walked to the control panel, tapping a few keys.

-- ETA: 48 STANDARD HOURS --

Lee sighed. Her eyes glanced at the bottle in her hands.

It would be a long two days, she decided, rummaging through the cabinets for some salt.

*Thirty-three dead Ice-jin bodies on the wall, thirty-three dead Ice-jin bodies...* Lee sat cross-legged on the cot, salt in one hand, what was left of a lemon in the other. The now empty bottle of tequila lay dripping on the floor, and she eyed it with disdain. *Dunno what Ree sees in this stuff… gimme my good ol' vodka any day a' the—*

Warning sirens suddenly started to sound, and the interior of the tiny pod shone a very dangerous looking blood-red. Lee glanced at the panels in the front and frowned, noticing a lot of tiny blinking lights. Groaning, she managed to stand up and stumble over to the panels –- but not before swerving enough to dodge the incoming chair that suddenly smashed down from the ceiling. She stared down at the metal mess on the floor near her feet.

*At least I know the gravity's fixed.*

Standing where she would've sat had the chair have been in its rightful place, she checked all internal systems but found no problems. Mind starting to clear and focus with her problem, she ran quick fingers over the panel to check any external causes.

-- WARNING: TWENTY METEORS SURROUNDING POD --

*Say WHAT? Okay, and where exactly would these 'meteors' be coming from?* she thought, tapping in the query. Not two seconds later, the system spat out a string of seemingly impossible coordinates on the screen. Lee froze for a moment. From the coordinates, it looked like the pod was being—

"Attention, unidentified pod," a scratchy, unknown voice announced from the speakers. "You are trespassing in Silver's airspace. You will surrender immediately and prepare to be boarded. Do not attempt to break through; you are surrounded."

*Silver?* Lee grabbed the pod's mic and cleared her throat, glad that her adrenaline was overpowering the tequila in her mind. "This is Lee, Saiyajin second-class on board pod ID#42775B, identify yourself, I repeat, identify yourself." *Or I'll blow all those tiny little dots on my screen to itty-bitty smithereens…*

The voice came back, more commanding than before. "Your ID isn't registered. Don't make it harder for yourself, woman. Just surrender and prepare to be boarded. We can do this the easy way, or our way."

"I'll take choice three," Lee said to herself, throwing the mic over her shoulder and switching the piloting to manual, grabbing the controls firmly. "MY way."

And then she pulled back hard, planting her feet firmly on the floor as she felt her stomach turn and the pod shoot up and away, right above where what the system said was a 'meteor' hovering directly in front of the pod. Then came the first jolts of cannon blasts, hitting the back of the pod with tremendous force but only serving to propel the pod faster. Lee took one hand off the controls only long enough to open the windows, after which her eyes were riveted on the sight ahead.

Silver looked like nothing but a cloud of dust.

It hung in space, a silvery gray cloud of dense space smog, with what looked like hundreds of thousands of tiny 'meteors' surrounding it with a complex net of electricity -- almost like an intricate, glowing spider web. It was obvious that whoever had control of this thing didn't want to give it up that easily. That, or they were protecting something. But what would be worth protecting in a cloud of silver nothing?

Lee looked to the wall behind her that had become transparent when she activated the windows. The 'meteors,' which looked more like huge cannons with rocket engines and pilots attached, were coming up fast behind her; if she didn't pull off some miracle flying, she'd be shot down or taken prisoner in a matter of minutes. At which point it might be impossible to complete her mission-- *Waitasec... what IS my mission here...?*

Mentally cursing her drunken self for forgetting to check the README file in the pod's internal circuitry, she quickly called it up and read as fast as her eyes would let her. And then she continued to stare at the words, even while the enemy cannons almost shot the back of the pod completely away.

-- MISSION: INFILTRATE SILVER; RESCUE PRISONERS; DESTROY ALL OBSTACLES; SURVIVE. --

As Lee forcibly shook herself back into reality, she took another look outside and growled low. The electric web around "Silver" was still there and, according to the tech readouts her controls showed her, indestructible. With one of the newer makes of the WS pods, she might've been able to fire a few wet torpedoes at some of the electric 'meteors,' possibly short-circuiting them. With the equipment she had now -- which were most likely centuries behind in terms of WS technology -- she had no chance of forcing her way past the cloud's defenses.

Unless, of course, she was taken captive.

*And then what? What the hell use am I going to be behind bars?*

She ignored the tiny voice in her head, concentrating instead on not dying in the now very damaged pod before she got the chance to officially surrender. Grabbing the manual controls again (which, as she scanned all the instruments, were the only controls left), she pushed hard, making the pod dive low just as a cannon blast zipped over only a few inches above, making the pod shake violently.

*Hold together hold together hold together--*

But it didn't hold together.

Another blast came too close, and the walls of the pod finally gave out, breaking apart like an egg shell, leaving the inner workings and machinery dangling in space along with its one passenger.

Outer space suddenly seemed less silent and more deadly than Lee ever imagined.

The lack of pressure seemed to make her body feel not only much lighter, but fuller as well, as if someone were pumping her full of burning cold air. Through eyes that were starting to bleed with the extreme pressure change, she could make out some kind of flying asteroid heading towards her, glittering a dark purple as it sped towards the remains of the pod and her straining body. Then her back arched uncontrollably – she never did fare too well in low pressure situations – and she fought against the full body spasms as she coughed up blood that hung in space before her like a sticky red web.

The last thing she saw before she blacked out was the shadow of what she had thought was an asteroid. And the last thing she felt were its arms around her, carrying her far away from the wreckage, possibly to her final resting place, with soft grass, tall, strong trees, and beautiful, beautiful sunlight…

"I can't get a lock on her pulse."

"So defibrillate."

"Should we take that chance?"

"She's right, we don't even know if her body responds to that kind of--"

"Oh, for kami's sake, look at the bone density, she's Saiyajin!"

"Wait, wait, oh damn, I think she's conscious..."

"Quick, alert the others. She might be hostile."

Lee regained consciousness way before she gathered the courage to open her eyes -- the light in the room was glaring, even through the backs of her eyelids, and it almost hurt to move her eyes anyway. She could feel straps on her arms and legs, but she took it as a good sign, since she could actually feel her arms and legs in the first place. Which meant that her body was more or less in tact. Then she heard the voices... and her heart leapt in anger.

Hostile?

"I'm not hostile," she managed to growl out through a jaw which was probably wired shut. "I'm lethal."

"She's Saiyajin all right," an almost timid-sounding female voice spoke near her right ear. "Less charming than her sister, though."

Dawning recognition clouded her anger for a moment. And then--

"PURPLE FREAKS! LET ME GO OR I'LL SLAUGHTER THE LOT OF YOU!"

Ree's voice rang clearly in the distance, and Lee swore up and down that, sister or no, Ree was acting more like the Kemanians than a Saiyajin, and she'd smack her good for it.

"Drug her."

Wow, finished with this part. Now to get the girls onto Earth... and get the main plot moving along. Heh.


End file.
